Flash-card educational aid for teaching sequences

ABSTRACT

A flash-card type educational aid comprising a board having top and bottom (or left and right side) portions, each of which portions is provided with an equal and identically arranged plurality of slots for removably mounting indicia bearing inserts therein to form a sequence comprising said inserts, and a cover pivotally secured to one of said portions for alternately revealing and concealing a sequence of indicia bearing inserts formed in one of said plurality of slots whereby the ability to duplicate a flashed sequence in said other plurality of slots may be tested.

[45 1 Sept. 4, 1973 I FLASH-CARD EDUCATIONAL AID FOR TEACHING SEQUENCES[76] Inventor: Aaron Heller, 23 W. 68th St., New

York, NY. 10023 [22] Filed: May 8, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 251,323

[52] U.S. Cl 35/22 R [51] Int. Cl. G091) 19/00 [58] Field of Search 35/9R, 9 E, 22 R, 35/22 A, 8 R, 35 R [56] References Cited UNITED STATESPATENTS 3,081,560 3/1963 Campoagud 35/35 R 3,172,214 3/1965 Aberge eta1. 35/8 R 3,539,077 11/1970 Drexler et a1 222/82 1,509,371 9/1924 Nalle.1 35/22 R 1,587,026 6/1926 Nalle .7 35/22 R 2,659,163 11/1953 Albee 1.35/8 R FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 270,88] 5/1927 Great Britain35/22 R Primary ExaminerWm. H. Grieb Attorney- Myron Cohen, Maurice B.Stiefel et a1.

[57] ABSTRACT A flash-card type educational aid comprising a boardhaving top and bottom (or left and right side) portions, each of whichportions is provided with an equal and identically arranged plurality ofslots for removably mounting indicia bearing inserts therein to form asequence comprising said inserts, and a cover pivotally secured to oneof said portions for alternately revealing and concealing a sequence ofindicia bearing inserts formed in one of said plurality of slots wherebythe ability to duplicate a flashed sequence in said other plurality ofslots may be tested.

I 5 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures Patented Seph4, 1973 |H|H IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHHIIHY FLASH-CARD EDUCATIONAL AID FOR TEACHING SEQUENCESBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The inventionrelates to educational aids, and in particular, to a flash-card" type ofdevice wherein sequentially arranged subject matter is momentarilyflashed to a viewer and then concealed from view while the viewerattempts to duplicate the subject matter in the correct sequence.

2. Prior Art Flash cards and multiple sequence teaching devices areknown in the art. One such prior device is a device employing multiplesequences, each sequence comprising a plurality of chips wherein astudent must match one of the already positioned chips in the sequencewith three identical chips and one chip bearing a dissimilar indiciathereon. Such device employs electrical means for indicating thecorrectness of the sequence.

Another such prior art device is disclosed in US. Pat. No. 3,l72,2l4,which discloses an image to word match of sequences wherein the imagesequence comprises a plurality of chips and the word sequence comprisesa single piece having a plurality of matching words printed thereon inthe sequence as opposed to a plurality of pieces. However, such priorart devices do not disclose a flash card arrangement wherein a sequencecomprising a plurality of chips each bearing a different indicia thereonin the sequence is recreated from memory using an identical plurality ofchips after having observed the flashed sequence.

Accordingly, to applicants knowledge, there are presently no availableprior art flash-card type se quence teaching aids wherein a plurality ofchips can be utilized to recreate a flashed sequence comprising anidentical plurality of such chips and wherein both the chips comprisingthe sequence to be flashed and the matching sequence are removablymounted in the flash card so that the sequence to be tested may beeasily varied.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a flash-cardtype edu cational aid which enables a user to test his ability tomemorize and duplicate a sequence of symbols or other indicia bymomentarily viewing such a sequence and then having the sequenceconcealed from view while he attempts to duplicate it.

The invention provides a board which is divided into first and secondportions which may preferably be oriented in a top and bottom orleft-side and right-side arrangement. Each side portion is preferablyprovided with an equal and identically arranged plurality of slots inwhich indicia bearing inserts may be removably mounted to form asequence. One of the above said portions has a cover pivotally securedthereto, which cover can be raised or lowered to reveal or conceal thesequence of indicia bearing inserts removably mounted in one of theplurality of slots.

When the two portions are in top and bottom arrangement, by way ofexample, the slots will preferably be arranged in horizontal rows, andthe cover is pivotally secured to either the top or the bottom portion.

When'the two portions are in the left-side and rightside arrangement,the slots will preferably be arranged in vertical rows, and the coveris. pivotally secured to either the left-side or right-side portion.

The removably mountable inserts may bear any type of indicia which aresuitable for testing purposes. For example, the inserts may bear aseries of arbitrary symbols such as geometric shapes, or a series ofintelligent symbols such as letters, numerals, or elements of amathematical, chemical or logical equation.

To use the present invention, :a plurality of indicia bearing inserts isarranged, while concealed from the view of the test subject, in anydesired sequence in one set of the slots in the board, and the cover ispivoted to conceal such sequence. The test subject is then provided witha second, identical set of indicia bearing inserts and the cover ismomentarily raised and lowered to flash" the sequence before thesubject. After the cover has been lowered, and with the sequenceconcealed from view, the subject tries to duplicate the sequence bymounting the second set of inserts in the other set of slots in theboard.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is top plan view of the boardwith indicia bearing inserts mounted in the top portion thereof, withthe cover in the raised position.

FIG. 2 is a cross section taken along the line 2-2 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the board shown in FIG. l with the coverpartly closed.

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the board shown in FIG. 1 with the covercompletely closed.

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the board shown in FIG. 4 with an identicalset of indicia. bearing inserts correctly mounted in the bottom portionthereof.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the boardwherein the board is oriented with the slots arranged in left-sideright-side arrangement, with the cover pivotally secured to theright-side, and in partly closed position.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The construction and operationof the preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described inde' tail, in conjunction with the appended drawing in which like partsshown in the several figures are assigned the same reference numeral. I

Referring to FIG. I, there is shown a board 10, which is preferably madeof a rigid material such as cardboard. The board 10 is divided into twoportions 11 and I2, arbitrarily designated top and bottom respectively.A cover 113 is preferably conventionally hinged to the upper edge of topportion 11 such as by two strips of gummed paper 16 and 17 to permitmovement of the cover 113 relative to the board 10.. Within the regiongenerally designated as top portion 11, there is provided a horizontalrow of slots 14, while in the region generally designated as bottomportion 12, there is provided an identical horizontal row of slots 14',also shown in FIG. 2, which is a cross-sectional view of the board ofFIG. it taken along the line 2-2.

Each of the slots 14 in top portion 11 is shown with an indicia bearinginsert 15 in place. In the embodiment shown, for purpose ofillustration, the inserts l5 bear arbitrary symbols, such as geometricsymbols, although, if desired, these inserts 115 may bear intelligentsymbols such as letters, numerals or the elements of a mathematical,logical or chemical equation or any other symbols or indicia suitablefor testing purposes.

In utilizing the present invention as a flash-card type educational aid,the cover 13 is pivoted to the open position to expose the slots 14 intop portion 11. A plurality of indicia bearing inserts 15 is thenarranged in a desired sequence, such as the sequence shown by way ofexample in FIG. 1, while concealed from the view of the subject to betested. The slots 14 in the bottom portion 12 are empty at this time.The cover 13 is then pivoted to the closed position illustrated in FIG.4, a partially closed intermediate position of cover 13 beingillustrated in FIG. 3. The test subject is provided with a secondidentical set of indicia bearing inserts 15', or a group of inserts 15'containing the identical set of inserts 15 as well as additionaldissimilar inserts. This second set of inserts 15' is preferablyprovided in a random arrangement. The cover 13 is then momentarilypivoted or flashed" between the closed position of FIG. 4 and the openposition of FIG. 1 and back to the closed position of FIG. 4, to exposeor flash the sequence 15 before the test subject, the flash intervalbeing dependent on the desired recall time to be tested. After the cover13 has been returned to the closed position so as to once again concealthe sequence 15 from view, the board is given to the test subject whothen attempts to duplicate the flashed sequence in slots 14' by mountingthe second set of inserts 15' in these exposed slots 14, such correctsequence duplication being illustrated in FIG. 5.

If desired, the board 10 may be arranged as illustrated in FIG. 6 withthe slots 14 and 14' in vertical rows and the cover l3 pivotally securedto one side 18 of the board 10 in a left-right or side-to-siderelationship as opposed to the top-bottom relationship illustrated inFIG. 1. The utilization of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 is identicalwith that previously described with reference to FIGS. 15.

Variations and modifications can, of course, be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention.

For example, the indicia can be constituted by materials which aredistinguishable to the touch such as sandpaper, metal, felt and the likeand which can be used such as for testing the blind.

Having thus described my invention, what I desire to secure by LettersPatent and hereby claims is:

1. An educational aid comprising a board having first and secondportions, each said portion having an equal and identically arrangedplurality of slots, first and second sets of indicia bearing insertsremovably mountable in said slots to form a sequence, said sets being duplicates of each other and each comprising a plurality of said insertsequal to said portion slot plurality, and a cover pivotally secured toone of said portions, whereby said cover can be raised to reveal asequence of one of said sets of indicia bearing inserts mounted in theslots in said one portion and lowered to conceal said sequence andenable a viewer to attempt to duplicate said sequence in the slots inthe other said portion with the other of said sets.

2. An educational aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first andsecond portions are respectively top and bottom portions and thepluralities of slots are arranged in horizontal rows.

3. An educational aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first andsecond portions are respectively left and right side portions and thepluralities of slots are arranged in vertical rows.

4. An educational aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the indicia borneby the inserts are arbitrary symbols.

5. An educational aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the indicia borneby the inserts are intelligent symbols. 4' t '3

1. An educational aid comprising a board having first and secondportions, each said portion having an equal and identically arrangedplurality of slots, first and second sets of indicia bearing insertsremovably mountable in said slots to form a sequence, said sets beingduplicates of each other and each comprising a plurality of said insertsequal to said portion slot plurality, and a cover pivotally secured toone of said portions, whereby said cover can be raised to reveal asequence of one of said sets of indicia bearing inserts mounted in theslots in said one portion and lowered to conceal said sequence andenable a viewer to attempt to duplicate said sequence in the slots inthe other said portion with the other of said sets.
 2. An educationalaid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first and second portions arerespectively top and bottom portions and the pluralities of slots arearranged in horizontal rows.
 3. An educational aid as claimed in claim1, wherein the first and second portions are respectively left and rightside portions and the pluralities of slots are arranged in verticalrows.
 4. An educational aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the indiciaborne by the inserts are arbitrary symbols.
 5. An educational aid asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the indicia borne by the inserts areintelligent symbols.